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Lefty's US Open dilemma

Author: Rose Young
Date: 01/07/2009

For more than a decade Phil Mickelson was known as the nearly man of golf after failing to win any of the game's four great prizes.

Alongside Colin Montgomerie, he shared the title of 'best player never to have won a Major championship'.

But that all ended at Augusta in 2004 when the popular Californian finally brought an end to a record of 17 top ten finishes in the Majors with victory at the Masters.

Five years later and 'Lefty', as he is affectionately known by the galleries, has three Majors under his belt after winning the Masters again in 2006 and the PGA Championship in 2005.

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However, Mickelson is now haunted by a new demon - specifically his record in the US Open.

The national championship for American players continues to evade the otherwise successful 39-year-old.

But not only does it prove elusive, it is toying with his emotions after Sunday's runner-up finish behind Lucas Glover left him contemplating a fifth career second-placed finish in a tournament he grew up dreaming of winning.

Mickelson would have been the popular winner at Bethpage as he will now take the next three months off to tend to his wife Amy, who is suffering from breast cancer.

However, the history books show no mercy as no other player in the history of the game has finished runner-up in the US Open on more occasions than Mickelson.

So the question is will Phil Mickelson ever shrug off the tag of bridesmaid and win the year's second Major championship?

To provide the answer one must analyse the reason behind his string of nearly misses and one obvious factor springs to mind.

US Opens are generally won by players who can consistently hit the ball long and straight and grind out steady but not necessarily spectacular scores. Keeping out of the fearsome rough on the toughest layout of the year is a necessity.

That's patently not Mickelson's game as, by his own coach Butch Harmon's own admission, he doesn't know what the left-hander is going to produce every time he stands over the ball.

Steady rounds of golf and clinical course management is the name of the game and neither would be associated with the often cavalier and showman style of Mickelson.

His meltdown when he should he won the 2006 US Open at Winged Foot only to double bogey the last hole to hand the title to Geoff Ogilvy is a case in point.

In hindsight there was no need to take a driver - a club which had been misfiring all day - off the tee on the par four hole and when his tee shot hit clattered off the roof of a hospitality tent, the writing was on the wall.

However, the counter argument is that the 43-time career winner is far too talented not to win a US Open and eventually he will get the rub of the green necessary to add his list to the name of storied winners.

They argue that Mickelson's new training regime implemented by Harmon - three-time winner Tiger Woods' former coach - is leading to a more complete player.

Only time will tell which school of thought will provide to be the correct one.

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